US House passes ban on abortion after 20 weeks

Tuesday

Jun 18, 2013 at 8:00 AMJun 18, 2013 at 10:51 PM

By Roxana Tiron, BLOOMBERG NEWS

The House of Representatives voted Tuesday to ban abortions nationwide past 20 weeks of pregnancy, joining at least 10 states in seeking to expand prohibitions on the procedure further than the U.S. Supreme Court has allowed.

The bill, passed 228-196, would make such abortions a crime with a possible prison sentence. At least 10 states have passed similar laws, with those in Arizona and Idaho declared unconstitutional by federal courts. The Texas Senate plans to vote as soon as today on a bill to ban abortions after 20 weeks.

"These late-term abortions are incredibly, incredibly painful" for the fetus, Republican Representative Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee said during floor debate. "The American public is with us on this."

The Democratic-controlled Senate won't take up the House bill.

"This bill is unconstitutional," California Democrat Zoe Lofgren said on the House floor. "It's a direct challenge to Roe v. Wade," the 1973 decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion nationwide.

The court in 1992 reaffirmed that the government can't ban abortions before the fetus is capable of living outside the womb, which is generally considered to begin at about 24 weeks. The Obama administration said it "strongly opposes" the House measure and the president would veto it.

Major medical groups, including the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, have disputed claims that fetuses can feel pain at 20 weeks.

Health-Care Law

The House, which is controlled by Republicans, has taken a number of votes on legislation doomed to fail in the Senate, to send a message to voters and allow Republican lawmakers to go on the record on a particular topic. On May 16, the House voted for the 37th time to repeal or defund at least part of Obama's 2010 health-care law.

Jean Schroedel, a politics professor at Claremont Graduate University in Claremont, California, said House Republicans are seeking to "placate" their base on abortion, even as they recognize the measure won't become law.

"What they are trying to do is give some red meat to their socially conservative base" with the abortion vote as Congress debates immigration legislation opposed by many Republicans, Schroedel said.

Republican-led states increasingly have restricted when and how women can end their pregnancies. At least 10 have enacted laws since 2010 banning abortions after the 20th week of pregnancy. The Texas bill also would require abortions to be performed in ambulatory surgical centers, which advocates for access to the procedure say may force the closing of most of the state's clinics.

Kermit Gosnell

House Speaker John Boehner, an Ohio Republican, told reporters today that after the murder case of Philadelphia abortion provider Kermit Gosnell, "the vast majority of the American people believe in the substance of this bill." Gosnell was convicted in May of killing three babies born alive at his clinic.

Only 1.5 percent of abortions performed in the U.S. in 2006 were performed after 20 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which researches and compiles reproductive health data in New York.

The House bill, H.R. 1797, would make it a crime, punishable by as many as five years in prison, to perform abortions on patients beyond the 20th week of pregnancy.

It was revised by the Republican majority to add exceptions for cases of rape or incest after the bill's sponsor, Representative Trent Franks of Arizona, drew criticism for saying the number of pregnancies caused by rape was "very low." Leaders also replaced Franks with Blackburn to manage the floor debate.

Medical Evidence

Franks's bill says there is "substantial medical evidence" that a fetus can feel pain "at least by 20 weeks after fertilization, if not earlier."

The vote is opening Republican congressional leaders, most of whom are men, to fresh criticism from Democrats that they disrespect women. The issue cost Republicans votes in the 2012 election after statements like losing Senate candidate Todd Akin's remark that pregnancy rarely results from "legitimate rape."

Obama won 11 percentage points more support from women than Republican Mitt Romney, according to exit polls.

"Women should be able to make their own choices about their bodies and their health care, and government should not inject itself into decisions best made between a woman and her doctor," the Obama administration said in a statement.